I have a friend that was told by Gil Ash and Charles Schneible that he does not have a strong dominent eye and he would like to try putting a piece of see thru tape over his non dominent eye (left) but does not know exactly where to position it? How do you decide where to put it?

Thanks,
Jim

Dear Jim,

Where to put that Magic Dot (or piece of frosty translucent Scotch Tape which is just as good)? Nothing easier. First of all, unload the gun. Check it again. Check it a third time.

Give your friend the piece of tape. For most people a circle a bit smaller than a dime, but bigger than a pea will do. You don’t want it to be too big. Check your gun again to make sure it’s unloaded. Now put your shooting glasses on and premount your gun as though you were going to shoot trap. Get nice and comfortable. Now close the master eye (the one over the rib) and leave the “off” eye open. Instruct your friend to place the tape on your off eye glasses lens just so that you can’t see the front bead. With your off eye open and your master eye closed, you’ll be able to tell quite accurately when the patch is in the right place to obscure the front bead.

That’s all there is to it. With only the front bead obscured, you won’t be able to cross fire when the bead is on the bird, but you will retain some peripheral vision in the off eye. As the bird and bead come together, the master eye has to take over because it is the only one that can see. Naturally, you concentrate your vision on the target, but the front bead will remain in your peripheral vision.

This isn’t a perfect solution to cross dominance, but it is as good as any of the other ones, such as blinking down, different tinted lenses and just shooting with one eye closed. A big advantage is that the dot doesn’t require the shooter to do anything, where as blinking down or shutting an eye does. Of course, as soon as the tape obscures the target, you lose depth perception, but by then you should have figured out your lead.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
The Technoid writing for Shotgun Report, LLC
(Often in error. Never in doubt.)